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Category Archives: Workplace Strategy

On the journey toward value-based healthcare, health systems are facing stiff competition. Consumers’ costs are going up, their expectations are higher and they’re not afraid to comparison shop when it comes to their health and wellness. Add nontraditional healthcare channels like pharmacy and grocery into the mix, and the battle for market share becomes even more crowded.

“To compete in a retail-driven healthcare market, health systems need to take a customer-focused approach to attract and retain both customers and top talent,” said Vicki Eickelberger, Managing Director at Big Red Rooster, a JLL company. “Creating experiences that connect with customers and their needs has been a strategic premise of successful retailing for decades.”

Healthcare is expensive, messy and fraught with emotion. Gaining customers’ trust requires a care-centered brand fueled by strong culture and service standards. If you’re hearing any of the negative statements below within the walls of your health system, reconsider your brand experience.

“I’m lost.”

Hospitals play host to patients, caregivers, visitors and other guests, meaning there’s a need to build out multiple customer experiences within the same environment. It’s the reason many systems have tapped a Chief Experience Officer, and why OhioHealth turned to Big Red Rooster for an easy and intuitive wayfinding system.

After interviewing stakeholders to understand needs and desired outcomes, Big Red Rooster journey mapped each audience’s experience to identify the best placement of branding and signage. Prioritizing simplicity and projecting a sense of calm, public spaces became uplifting landmarks that oriented people efficiently. That consumer-centric filter has extended across the system’s culture, process and design, resulting in valuable continuity across ambulatory, outpatient and pharmacy sites.… Read More

Shopping on your lunch hour never gets old. Especially in the suburbs, where the live/work/play perks of urban density are in short supply. Suburban malls offer the opportunity to run errands during lunch, while also conveniently supporting a wide array of business amenities such as restaurants and event space for everyday meetings and larger corporate gatherings.

Across suburban Chicago, Class A office properties within a mile of a major mall are outperforming their competition in three out of four major suburban submarkets. While the area around Fashion Outlets of Chicago appears to be flagging, JLL Research attributes that to lack of concentrated Class A buildings surrounding the retail center and the size of nearby O’Hare airport.

Just in time for summer, we’re here with an office space discount you have to see to believe. In the last five years, the gap between top-tier downtown and suburban space has dramatically widened, creating interesting opportunities for occupiers looking for luxury.

Since 2012, Class A rents have increased just 3.2 percent in the suburbs, compared with more than 21.5 percent downtown. For even the smallest tenants, this represents six-figure savings that could be reallocated to other business priorities, from talent retention to technology upgrades.… Read More

At a recent NAIOP Chicago event, the topic wasn’t real estate; it was labor. February saw the highest monthly level of job creation since mid-2016 and unemployment sits at just 4.1 percent as skilled talent becomes increasingly difficult to recruit and retain.

JLL’s Meredith O’Connor and Keith Stauber

“Job growth continues rapidly even with talent shortages and employment occurring faster than the labor force can expand,” said JLL Managing Director Keith Stauber, moderator. “These trends also mirror consumer confidence, which has been at its highest levels since 2000.”

Greater competition for labor has pushed occupiers to look at long-term workforce productivity and sustainability (including metrics like net migration and population growth) rather than short term affordability.

The NAIOP panel of experts featured JLL International Director Meredith O’Connor, Co-Chairman of JLL’s Headquarters Practice Group and a Business and Economic Incentives lead. Her top 10 takeaways:… Read More

Spoiler alert. In the shared economy, everyone’s customer is the end user. The knowledge worker, the talent, the Millennials, whatever you want to call it. At Chicago 2025, JLL Chicago’s marquee event held earlier this month, we heard from some of the industry’s top thought leaders on how they’re navigating the shared economy’s major changes to the way we operate.

Panelists John Gavin, Andrea Zopp and Chris Kelly

The No. 1 thing tenants talk about is talent, said World Business Chicago president and CEO AndreaZopp, which is positive news for Chicago. We’re drawing college graduates at a higher rate than our comparable cities because people are looking for quality of life, affordability and a wide variety of housing options to evolve in an urban environment. And what talent wants is driving both major business decisions and major municipal ones, like Chicago’s investment in Divvy, our bike share program. All employers want is the ability to compete, and Chicago’s diverse economy, connectivity, access to transit, and quality of neighborhoods are all formidable tools for their arsenal. Expect forward-thinking initiatives like the planned express train to O’Hare to go a long way in attracting and retaining our major corporate occupiers.… Read More

Hundreds of industry leaders joined JLL Chicago to discuss Chicago 2025 and the shared economy. Transforming industries and challenging traditional business models, shared economy giants from Uber to WeWork have also become daily staples for all of us.

ChrisKelly, co-founder and president of Convene, a New York-based “workplace-as-a-service” platform and provider that expanded into Willis Tower last summer, kicked off the big event with a keynote. We’re on the cusp of a new paradigm, which will redefine the form and utility of office buildings. Seeing as office building design hasn’t changed since the turn of the century, the shared economy lifestyle is posing unique challenges for developers and owners alike.

The world will never move this slowly again. Knowing that two of the world’s largest economic forces, the shared economy and technology, have yet to make their mark on real estate’s dominant design, Chris shared some key predictions in building the office towers of the future:… Read More

Just six months after acquiring the 1970s-style Class B property at 222 South Riverside Plaza in 2014, ownership kicked off a transformational renovation with the close involvement of JLL’s agency leasing, project management and property management teams. The project has already experienced tremendous success and is poised to add value to ownership’s investment long after its 2017 completion.

Click below for our Project Profile on 222 South Riverside Plaza. The West Loop tower’s $50 million renovation was featured in the Chicago Tribune and continues to make a major impact on tenant renewals and rental rates.

In a strategic re-use of formerly obsolete space, the team chose the back of the lobby for the new tenant lounge, as the former ground-level retail was not a desirable location for a tenant. The multi-disciplinary JLL team played an integral role in shaping plans and facilitating efficient, clear communication around the specs and schedule of construction.… Read More

Since the American Academy of Pediatrics’ headquarters opened more than 30 years ago, the organization has experienced unprecedented growth. Membership has grown by more than 250 percent to 66,000 members, and total staff has increased from 125 to 455 people. AAP tapped JLL in early 2014 to craft a strategic real estate plan for its new “headquarters of the future.”

Click below for our Project Profile on AAP, an organization committed to the optimal physical, mental and social health and wellbeing for all infants, children, adolescents and young adults.

We explored expansion and restacking AAP’s existing Elk Grove Village building, purchase of a new building and a ground-up build-to-suit. After touring downtown and suburban sites, it became clear that a build-to-suit was the best choice for AAP’s unique needs. Hamilton Lakes Business Park in Itasca offered proximity to AAP’s valued employee base and future expandability.

As owner’s rep, we facilitated the acquisition of the land site, due diligence and entitlements, as well as the hiring of all project partners. The team worked through the approval process with the Village of Itasca regarding site layouts and engineering, traffic impact and local intersection improvements to help traffic flow.… Read More

While unlimited soup, salad and breadsticks is a universal truth at any Olive Garden, an unlimited supply of engineers is not a guarantee in a hot tech market like Silicon Valley. That’s why the most agile and bottom-line-minded tech firms have turned to Chicago to find their next tech talent, whether their need is a half dozen or several hundred of the best and brightest.

“We want to tap into the Chicago market. We’re excited about the tech talent there—the new grads, people returning home because it’s such a livable city,” Foursquare senior vice president of engineering Matt Kamen recently told Crain’s Chicago Business.

While Foursquare is starting to hire just a half-dozen engineers locally, enterprise demand for its location data underscores a high-growth and more diversified future for the New York-based business. Foursquare looked at other up-and-coming markets, from Toronto to Austin, but we can guess one big reason Chicago won—tempered wage growth.… Read More

When it comes to sustainability, companies and landlords need to start thinking outside of the ‘green’ box in order to attract new occupiers in a tightening market. After all, sustainability isn’t just about the environment anymore. It’s also about health and wellness, which is why more and more building owners are looking to add amenities such as fitness centers, bike racks and showers within their facilities, as well as to integrate health and wellness measures into the design of their buildings. However, landlords need to be thoughtful about how they tackle the demand for building amenities, as the added electricity alone can greatly increase the budget, with electrical making up nearly a third of total renovation cost.

There are many pros to adding wellness focused amenities within your building, whether included in ground up construction or through renovation:… Read More

The suburban office market is changing in response to two notable trends. While many corporate users have vacated their longtime campuses for the allure of the live/work/play life downtown, others are recommitting to the suburbs and collaborating with creative landlords.

When office park innovator BECO Management acquired the former Motorola Mobility campus in Libertyville in 2014, it fused both trends, creating an urban environment within a suburban landscape. After buying at a low basis and kicking off a large-scale redevelopment, the D.C.-based investor recently chose JLL to market Innovation Park, Lake County.

BECO built it, and we’re making sure they come. As dozens of brokers tour the property each month, the most common reaction is “I had no idea.” With services from meals to daycare and fitness to laundry, employees never have to leave. The productivity implications are profound. Nowhere else can your day include an on-site massage, team bonding in the game room and soaking up sun on the bike path. We’re telling a singular story, and two major tenants have already signed on: Valent Biosciences (98,000 s.f.) and Brightstar (65,000 s.f.).

In a market as large as suburban Chicago, getting to work can be around the corner or a major undertaking. Our Research team recently completed a suburban SWOT analysis, determining the top three modes of transportation used to get to the office in each submarket. Roll over each submarket below for the details.

Strength: Public transit

Public transportation, from the L to the Metra, has been a boon to several… Read More

As the nature of work continues to change dramatically, the technology available to us, services we offer our employees and the spaces we create are evolving as well. A focus on experiences is driving the future of workplace culture, which was the topic of conversation last week at the Schaumburg Business Association’s Commercial Real Estate Summit – The Future of Work.

Our own Senior Vice President Mark Kolar and National Workplace Consulting lead Ed Nolanhosted a panel of workplace experts from both established and rapidly growing buzzworthy brands: Google HR Business Manager JackySchiestel; Paylocity VP of Human Resources Jay Schedler; ABT Electronics Co-President Mike Abt; and Andigo COO JeanTheis. Enjoy their culture commandments as inspiration to make bold changes in your own workplace.

Just say yes

ABT doesn’t have an employee manual, but for more than 80 years and three generations, the founding family has been instilling a culture of “yes.” Employees quickly learn to take on any reasonable request from a customer, which infuses the store with positive energy and optimism.… Read More

Since 2008, downtown Chicago has attracted 88 suburban and 13 out-of-market companies, of which 32 have been headquarters relocations. If your company is thinking of making the move or you’re just curious about new neighborhoods, take this headquarters quiz and land on the best submarket for your team!

While corporate real estate strategies are definitely one-size-fits-one, headquarters relocations seem spurred by surprisingly similar reasons. We wouldn’t call this kind of groupthink a bad thing, rather a natural reaction to a global demographic shift. You can’t ignore more than one million people moving into cities every week.

We analyzed the corporate press releas es associated with Chicago’s 32 headquarters relocations since 2008, paying close attention to quotes from each CEO. These leaders have waxed philosophic, strategic, straight up practical and everything in between in their commentary, offering a glimpse into larger pushes for organizational change and innovation.

Our word cloud above sizes words based on how frequently they’ve been used by CEOs. Roll your mouse over each word to see a sample quote and we’ll dig into the top reasons for moving below.… Read More

“A person should not believe in an -ism, he should believe in himself.” –Ferris Bueller

Generation X grew up unsupervised, independent and decidedly anti-establishment. This small, often overlooked cohort entered the corporate world with little fanfare but a wildly different attitude, shirking preconceived notions of work and traditional business dogmas.

Bringing an entrepreneurial mindset to Corporate America has been a major Gen X contribution, bolstered by fluency in technology, prioritization of work/life balance and a fierce pursuit of individuality. Now entering the leadership roles of the C-suite, this generation is the innovative force behind today’s workplace trends—especially their companies’ defining headquarters moves.… Read More

Yesterday our Suburban Tenant Representation team hosted a webinar exploring the Future of Work and how Human Experience plays a critical role in shaping a productive culture. In other words, it pays for your company to invest in your satisfaction.

“Understanding real estate’s financial and operational performance is now table stakes,” said JLL Managing Director Ed Nolan. “How people feel about work plays a key role in promoting engagement, empowerment and fulfillment at the office.”

In the midst of tenants’ intense focus on reducing gross rent and utilities costs there lies a missed opportunity to harness human capital.

DLA Piper’s David Mendelsohn, Managing Partner, has a message for all the law firms out there looking to revamp their space: “Do not hold back. Be as creative and bold as your firm’s culture allows you to be.”

DLA Piper’s David Mendelsohn said if you want employees to be productive, it’s about starting with clear objectives, knowing what you want to accomplish and then staying committed to those objectives every step of the way.

While the traditional office sector has been at it for years, law firms are beginning to see the value in modernizing their space to stay competitive and attract top talent. With the help of JLL’s Law Firm Practice Group, DLA Piper did just that.

Earlier this year, DLA left its home of nearly 30 years, 203 N. LaSalle, and made its way to River Point, the gleaming 52-story office tower perched at 444 W. Lake overlooking the Chicago River. The move symbolized the global law firm’s commitment to focusing on its people and creating a productive work environment.

So how can other firms like DLA use their real estate to engage and retain employees and remain competitive?

JLL dove into this discussion recently inside DLA’s brand new office and in front of an audience of nearly 100 of Chicago’s law firm leaders.… Read More

In the wake of this month’s global cyberattack, perpetrated by ransomeware called WannaCry, companies around the world are strengthening their efforts to secure their data and avert costly breaches.

A growing wave of malicious attacks have cost major retailers, banks, insurance companies and more billions of dollars in lost business, stock value, legal settlements, data recovery and security costs. Hackers continue to find new and unexpected virtual “back doors” to enter, and one of the latest concerns is commercial real estate.

“Hackers have and will infiltrate building systems, from the lighting to the HVAC to modems and routers,” said JLL Managing Director StevePollard, leader of the Multi-site Project and Development Services team. “Fortifying these systems needs to be a top priority for commercial real estate executives and IT professionals.”… Read More

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JLL's Chicago blog offers expert insight on news and trends for owners, investors and tenants of commercial real estate. Learn more about our services and our professionals to see how they’ve helped clients throughout the Chicago area with their commercial real estate needs.

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